Ta-dah! Sophie's Universe!

It's been nearly 18 weeks now since I started on the Sophie's Universe CAL, and I cannot believe how much I've learned in that time. Sophie has made me a much better and more confident crocheter - what a girl! 

Before we get to the photos, a HUGE thank you to the incredible Dedri Uys from www.lookatwhatimade.net, the designer of this stunning project. 

Now, isn't she beautiful? 

Catching up!

Hello everyone! 

I haven't blogged much about everyday things for so long - between patterns and Melbourne, it's been a bit busy! Here's a little update on what's going on for me :) 

First, since it has been so long, a Sophie's Universe CAL update in pictures! I love the butterflies and the little plum tulips :) It is also big enough now to keep my knees warm while I work on it - very useful now that the weather is starting to get chilly of an evening. Only 3 more weeks to go!! 

I've also started on a new Crochet Along - Jane Crowfoot's Lily Pond Blanket together with Stylecraft Yarns. I wasn't that excited about it after I saw the initial photos, it seemed very dark. But now that I've made my first set of pieces, it really does look like ripples in a pond! I chose mostly Stylecraft Special DK colours to sort of match the Stylecraft Life DK set colours, but I think my choices are a bit brighter than the Special DK alternates provided.

I broke my yarn fast (again) last weekend at Spotlight's 40% off yarn sale. It was just too good to resist! I discovered some colourways of Moda Vera Bouvardia that I actually like, such as Tokyo:

and Sunset Dive:

And I am definitely excited about getting more of these yarns as they make such lovely Road Trip Scarves for my stall in June :) Fortunately Bouvardia is on sale for VIPs until 10 May, so I just have to get back to Spotlight before then! 

I also found a new Moda Vera Marvel variation called Magic Stripe - it has longer variegations in colour, and I think it works well for these booties! What do you think? I'm about to get started on a blue/green/white pair as well. 

But, our big excitement this week were the huge storms, rain and wind around Sydney and the Central Coast/Newcastle. We were fine here in Meadowbank (although the hot water was off for about a day due to damage to the hot water tanks), but up at the Lake House, things were a little bit different. There were trees down all over the place, they still have no power after 4 days, and the lake overflowed just a little bit! The combination of a king tide and the storm surge meant that the lake couldn't do its usual tidal thing at Swansea, so it got a tad overfull...

See that bench out in the water behind a tree? It's usually about a metre from the edge of the lake... The ducks thought it was all marvellous though :)  

We were meant to be going up there for this weekend to celebrate my mother's and my sister's birthdays, but without power we couldn't have hot showers or even make tea! Kiah and I quickly cleaned out the fridges and freezers, which were already defrosting, and just came home instead. It made for a long day, especially after getting evacuated from Spotlight at Tuggerah on the way! 

Tomorrow there will be birthday lunch at my parents' house - slow roasted pork belly, roast vegies and, by special request, red velvet birthday cake with salted caramel and white chocolate cream cheese icing! Wish me luck with the cake, I've never made red velvet before! 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend :) Don't forget, if you are interested in participating in the Crochet Between Worlds Christmas Market, send us a message on our Facebook page! We are going to start organising in earnest at the end of May when I get back from the Great Ocean Road Marathon! 

NEWS: Blog upgrade! CAL Updates! A Question for You!

Hello everyone!

Thank you for all your lovely comments on Anne's story about Mr AlienBunny and Ms Long-Ear! I love all the photos, and I hope they get to live happily ever after!

If you can't wait for our twice-weekly blog posts, you can also find us on Facebook and Instagram where we post pretty often with WIP updates and pretty things that pass by during the day :)

NEW BLOG URL

You might have noticed that we have a brand new blog url!! Our new home is 

www.crochetbetweenworlds.net

The old URL (crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com) still works of course, but we found that some people trying to find the blog, and us sometimes, forgot that although our blog name is Crochet Between Worlds, the old URL said Crochet Between TWO Worlds! Hopefully now it will be easier for people to find us :)

NEW PATTERN - COMING SOON

In other news, we have been doing some pattern designing and testing this week - what do you think? 

I made a little coin purse with this pattern, and Anne is working on a pattern for a flaming beanie! 

JULIE YEAGER'S MYSTERY CAL AFGHAN SQUARE

I've now finished my rainbow version of Julie Yeager's Mystery CAL Afghan Square! The full pattern is now available on Julie's website at http://julieyeagerdesigns.com/?p=277. This is the best kind of CAL for me - only a few rows a day, and one square at the finish line! Now I'm trying to decide what to do with it - do I make more squares but change the colour order? Expand it further to make a bigger square? Turn it into a cardigan back? Do you have any more ideas? 

SOPHIE'S UNIVERSE CAL UPDATE

Phew, we are now halfway through the Sophie's Universe CAL! There were so many single crochet stitches in this week's pattern - 520 alone in the last row! 

Michelle's:

Nicole's (she's up to Part 6, but catching up quick, especially since she only picked up a hook for the first time 2.5 months ago!):

and Kathryn's:

I love them all!

A QUESTION FOR YOU

Anne and I want to do a Christmas Market towards the end of the year - we've looked at real life markets around Sydney for when she comes to visit me in Australia, and also markets around her area, and such things are just going to be too difficult, being in two different countries.

BUT THEN

We thought maybe a Facebook Christmas Market including all our wonderful blog friends might be fun! It would probably be in late November to allow for postage times, and can include all sorts of arts and crafts that people can buy for decorations, Christmas presents or even just for themselves ;) 

Would you be interested in putting some of your items up for sale at the Crochet Between Worlds Christmas Market? If so, send us a message on our Facebook page at Crochet Between Worlds! 

We look forward to hearing from you!

Sophie's Universe Update! Plus, a brand new CAL

Hello everyone! 

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments - we love reading and replying, and also reading your blogs to find out what's happening in your worlds :) You can find us on Bloglovin', and also on Facebook and Instagram for updates in between posts. 

Today I delivered my competition entries to the Sydney Royal Easter Show! I'll find out by post whether I've had any success, and I am hoping to go to the exhibition on Tuesday 24 March to see if my work has been exhibited - wish me luck! 

Part 9 of the Sophie's Universe CAL was released this week! Amongst other things, the rows of very cute pink tulips are now on both sides! Also, the "short sides" are now longer than the "long sides"... Thank you to my amazing photographer Kiah who stood in at the last minute to save my shaking hands from blurry photos :) 

Kathryn is also finished with Part 9 now:

Nicole has left the Garden and is now journeying through the Universe!

Since I clearly don't have enough to do, I've also picked up another Crochet-along, from the incredible Julie Yeager! You might remember my Stained Glass Afghan that I started in Vanuatu last year - Julie designed the Stained Glass Afghan Square that I used. 

Fortunately this one is only to make a 12" square over 8 days, with one part every day. As usual I've coopted a wonderful friend to do it with me, so here are Parts 1, 2 and 3 from me and Yvette!

If you love Julie's patterns as much as I do, you'll be thrilled to know that as part of National Crochet Month, she is offering discount codes!! The codes are on her blog, and you should definitely go get them and then drool over her patterns on Ravelry ;) 

Phew! What a week! I hope you all have a lovely relaxing weekend :)